The Embassy of Canada to the United Arab Emirates, and the Canadian Business Council of Abu Dhabi (CBC), organized the annual ADIPEC networking event on Tuesday, 8 November 2016, at Fairmont Bab Al Bahr. The event included more than 200 business executives from the Canadian and UAE business community, including CBC members and delegations from Canadian companies that participated at ADIPEC.

H. E. Masud Husain, Ambassador of Canada to the UAE, made the welcoming remarks and boasted the efforts of H. E. Dr. Sultan Al Jaber and his commitment to make for new partnerships. His goal is to enhance opportunities for business relationships based on capacity, experience and expertise in the Oil and Gas sector, therefore creating opportunities. The Ambassador also discussed the optimism in the UAE that goes beyond the price of oil, which translates into more initiatives and activity on all economic fronts.

Mr. Jack Matar, CBC Chairman discussed the role of CBC in strengthening the business relationships between Canada and the UAE. He recognized the importance of ADIPEC in offering opportunities for visiting Canadian companies to close business deals. He concluded by thanking CBC annual sponsors, SNC-Lavalin as the networking event’s sponsor, and the Ambassador. He introduced Dr. Ziad Awad, SNC-Lavalin’s Senior Vice President (SVP) and Head of Region, Middle East, India and Africa.

Dr. Awad introduced ADIPEC and presence, being the region’s largest Canadian company with 12,000 employees working across several disciplines including mining, metallurgical infrastructure and power. SNC-Lavalin is active in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, India and Iraq. He discussed SNC-Lavalin’s continued relationship with Saudi Aramco by providing general engineering services for their oil and gas facilities. Dr. Awad highlighted that SNC-Lavalin can offer any support and can help customers reach their goals by working together to efficiently achieve the desired results. They are working continuously toward strengthening relationships to generate positive interaction in the field.